Michael Capuano on Families & Children

Democratic Representative (MA-8)

Healthy Families Act: paid time off for respite care

Q: How would you address long-term care so people can stay in their homes?

SUPPORT Increasing consumer choice & control for people needing longterm care.

SUPPORT Improving standards and incentives for quality care.

SUPPORT Providing family
caregiving initiatives, such as respite care.

A: I support a continuum of medical care, and I share your conviction that home and community services contribute both to high quality care and to the dignity & autonomy of the patient. I co-founded, with
another urban Democrat and two rural Republican colleagues, the bi-partisan House caucus on Community Health Centers. I have consistently supported Visiting Nurses and hospice care. I am proud to co-sponsor HR 2460, the Healthy Families Act, which adds
paid time off to the protections of the Family and Medical Leave Act. I am aware of the responsibilities, lovingly borne, by family caregivers. As a Mayor, I negotiated flextime and job sharing to help employees fulfill their family responsibilities.

Vote to adopt the conference report on the bill that would assign a national coordinator for AMBER alerts. AMBER alerts is an alert system for missing children, make available additional protections for children and set stricter punishments for sex offenders. Two-time child sex offenders would be subjected to mandatory life sentence. The measure would make it a crime to pander visual illustrations of children as child pornography. It would increase maximum sentences for a number of specified crimes against children. It would also make it a crime to take a trip to foreign countries and engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. It also would enlarge law enforcement's wiretap and electronic surveillance abilities in investigations of child pornography.

Voted NO on reducing Marriage Tax by $399B over 10 years.

Vote to pass a bill that would reduce taxes for married people by $399.2 billion over 10 years by doubling the couples' deduction and the child tax credit. Among other provisions, the bill would allow married couples filing jointly to claim a standard deduction equal to the deduction they would receive filing singly.

Member of the Missing & Exploited Children's Caucus.

Capuano is a member of the Congressional Missing & Exploited Children's Caucus

Statement Of Purpose

To build awareness around the issue of missing and exploited children for the purpose of finding children who are currently missing and to prevent future abductions.

To create a voice within Congress on the issue of missing and exploited children and introduce legislation that would strengthen law enforcement, community organizing and school-based efforts to address child abduction.

To identify ways to work effectively in our districts to address child abduction. By developing cooperative efforts that involve police departments, educators, and community groups we can heighten awareness of the issue and pool resources for the purpose of solving outstanding cases and preventing future abductions.

The Christian Coalition was founded in 1989 by Dr. Pat Robertson to give Christians a voice in government. We represent millions of people of faith and enable them to have a strong, unified voice in the conversation we call democracy.

Our Five-Fold Mission:

Represent the pro-family point of view before local councils, school boards, state legislatures, and Congress

Speak out in the public arena and in the media

Train leaders for effective social and political action

Inform pro-family voters about timely issues and legislation

Protest anti-Christian bigotry and defend the rights of people of faith.

Our ratings are based on the votes the organization considered most important; the numbers reflect the percentage of time the representative voted the organization's preferred position.

Increase number of children eligible for free school meals.

Capuano signed increasing number of children eligible for free school meals

A bill to amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to increase the number of children eligible for free school meals, with a phased-in transition period. Expands eligibility for free meals under the school lunch and breakfast programs to children whose family income falls at or below 185% of the federal poverty guidelines.

SPONSOR'S INTRODUCTORY REMARKS:

Sen. FRANKEN: In a country as wealthy as ours, it is shameful to let any child go hungry. That is why today, Senator Murkowski and I are introducing the Expand School Meals Act. By eliminating the reduced price meals category and replacing it with the free meal program, this legislation will ensure that low-income children are not denied nutritious food during the school day if their family can't afford to pay for it.

It is important to remember that this will improve student readiness for school.
Parents have long known, and recent studies confirm, that children cannot learn on empty stomachs. Hungry children perform worse on achievement tests, have trouble concentrating, and are more likely to act out in school.

There are 3.1 million low-income children across the Nation eligible for reduced-price school meals. Currently, these families must pay 40 cents for each lunch and 30 cents for each breakfast their children eat at school. While this may not sound like a lot of money to members of Congress, to a family that is barely scraping by, especially in today's economy, the cost can be prohibitive.

I would like to conclude by commending my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their leadership in advocating for the extension of free school meals to children of the working poor. These efforts began with Senator Elizabeth Dole, who in 2003 introduced a bill that would have also phased out the reduced price meals category.